Christmas Weekday

If you consider that God is righteous, you also know that everyone who acts in righteousness is begotten by him. See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed.  We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure.
As children of God, we are called to righteousness and purity. God gave us the perfect example of these virtues in His Beloved Son, who was righteous and pure in all his thoughts, words, and works. God did this because He loves us and wanted to give us a concrete model we could look to for guidance. Because of the example of Jesus Christ, we know who God is, what He wants from us, and how we should act toward Him and our neighbors. So, if we what eternal life with our Heavenly Father, we must be like Christ and have hope in our Creator.
Are we righteous and pure or selfish and sinful? What is getting in the way of our being Christ-like in our thoughts, words, and works? If we are sinful, how can we make ourselves righteous and pure going forward?
O Lord, make us righteous and pure.
Amen.